My Minimal Wardrobe

Life is about to change drastically for me this much I know. This inevitable change has been making me feel like I need to get my life in order. One of the mains areas that was annoying me was my overcrowded and messy wardrobe. I felt like I was holding onto lots of things for sentimental reasons and that I was unlikely to ever wear them again. Having so many items made finding what I was actually looking for a daily battle and often left the clothes that I did wear shoved on the bottom shelf with nowhere to hang or fold them. Being minimal in other areas of my life has not always translated into my wardrobe and I’ve had a tendency to hoard clothes. After a full day of sorting that is no longer the case and the above image is what my wardrobe now looks like. Everything that I have kept has been carefully considered and hopefully there will be no more days when I feel like I have nothing to wear but to many things to choose from.

This is how I went about building my minimal wardrobe.

I found a great place to start was by looking at the ideas in this Capsule Wardrobe Planner. You don’t need to follow all the rules exactly and I definitely have more than 37 pieces in my wardrobe but it gives you a good place to start. It’s a great resource for thinking about the kind of questions to ask yourself when you are coming up with some rules to help you put together your collection of clothes.

I decided that I needed to create a fashion uniform that would consist of a loose template of mostly casual clothes in a tight colour pallet.

I then gathered all the clothes I owned and went through them putting them into different piles – Keep, Maybe, Sell, Charity & Bin.

I made sure everything that was in the keep pile fitted into my new rules and colour pallet. The colours I chose were Black, Grey, White, Greens, Blues and Creams. I decided on these colours as I often find myself wearing these more than other colours, your colours could be anything you like. I got rid of anything with holes in it, that was stained, out of shape or very worn. Anything that I put into the maybe pile I have vacuum packed and stored away. I have decided I will look at these items again in 6 months and if I haven’t missed it I can either sell it or give it to charity.

Within the colour pallet I also needed to look at the things that were right for the kind of life I lead. If you spend all of your time walking your dog in the country there is no point in only keeping evening dresses, also if you work in a very corporate environment you might not need to have lots of casual clothes like jeans. Things that I have in my wardrobe as essentials may seem silly to you so it’s important to make the right decisions based on your lifestyle. Another very important thing to take into consideration is the climate that you live in. Scotland generally has four seasons but can be very cold and wet most of the year. You can probably count on one hand the number of days that can be classed as hot most years though there are occasionally exceptions to this. Here’s hoping since I won’t be working that this summer will be one of those years (I can dream). Because it’s mostly cold here it makes sense for me to have quite a few jackets and jumpers and not so many clothes that would be classed as summery. I’m also about to finish up working for a year so have been able to pack away any clothes that I would only wear to the office.

I’m now happy with everything that I have left even though I can’t fit into most of it at the moment hopefully I’ll be back in it all before I know it. I can also see that there are a few purchases I could make that will pull everything together but these can wait until after the baby is born and I can try clothes on again.

I’ll revisit my wardrobe every six months and look at how it is working for me and what is missing or needs to go. I’ll let you know how it all works out.